Tabu (2012)

A restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa.

Director:

Miguel Gomes

Writers:

Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo

Stars:

Telmo Churro, Miguel Gomes, Hortêncílio Aquina

19 wins & 46 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Telmo Churro	...	Intrepid explorer
Miguel Gomes	...	Narrator (voice)
Hortêncílio Aquina	...	Porter (as Hortencílio Aquina)
Américo Mota	...	Porter
Valentim Hortêncílio	...	Porter (as Valentim Hortencílio)
Artur Januário	...	Porter
Mariana Ricardo	...	Explorer's wife / Aurora's friend
Teresa Madruga	...	Pilar
Maya Kosa	...	Polish woman
Isabel Cardoso	...	Santa
Laura Soveral	...	Aurora
Vítor Manuel	...	Guide
Cândido Ferreira	...	Painter
Maria José Ricardo	...	Literacy teacher
Joana Cunha Ferreira	...	Pilar's friend

Storyline

A restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa.

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Plot Keywords:

post punk | cigar smoking | africa | neighbor | male rear nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie that Aurora was said to have participated in, "It will never snow again over Kilimanjaro", is, of course, fictional.

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Goofs

A plane with the registration C9-JCG appears. This is the new registration for Mozambique, the old one was CR-A--

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Connections

References Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)

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Soundtracks

Lonely Wine
Written by Ray Wallis
Performed by Mickey Gilley

User Reviews

Tabu

A KVIFF viewing, the third feature-length work from Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, which was among the contenders for the Golden Bear in Berlin earlier this year, and wound up winning the FIPRESCI Prize and Alfred Bauer Award.

The film is entirely in Black & White, which has a deceiving anachronism effect and injects an appeasing vigor to enliven the storyline. With being equally divided into two parts, the first half is the contemporary story between a middle-aged woman, Pillar and her senior neighbor Aurora (who is live alone with her black servant Santa, and strongly believes her estranged daughter and Santa are plotting against her); the second half is completely B&W silent, with an elaborate voice-over from Aurora's former lover Ventura, revealing a secret history about he and Aurora's love affair back in Africa half an century ago. It is a distinctively interesting composition, which contributes a pleasant illusion that we were watching a double-feature.

But by comparison, the first part is more austere and compelling while the second part is basically about a superfluously hackneyed liaison between a married woman and a romantic womanizer, the only worthiness is that it is between two white people in Africa, and if one intends to get some in-depth probe about the continent and its people, the film could hardly suffices this curiosity.

Between the female correlation in the first part, Pilar has a manifest momentum to propel the storyline, and ruefully there will not be a third paragraph to recount her story out of the lightly over-hyped second part, her story behind might own more worth to be revisited and explored. Teresa Madruga and Laura Soveral are spellbinding during their screen time, if only the second half could be reinterpreted in another way, the film could have been a fabulous essay about love, aging and mystery behind everyone's usual representation.

Details

Country:

Portugal Germany Brazil France Spain

Language:

Portuguese English Polish

Release Date:

5 April 2012 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Tabu

Filming Locations:

Lisbon, Portugal

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,108,473

Company Credits

Production Co:

O Som e a Fúria, Komplizen Film, Gullane

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1